


The Shaking of Foundations

by Mullvad93



Category: Dark Souls III
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-20 22:14:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10671819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mullvad93/pseuds/Mullvad93
Summary: The Ashen One might be a hero, a saviour of worlds. The Ashen One is still one of the most terrifying monsters of this wretched world. Because even a saviour might be terrifying in their moment of glory.





	The Shaking of Foundations

Irina's world was made out of sound and touch, her dark world not one she had chosen but the one she had been given nonetheless. A world in which the Ashen One had entered and brought warmth and hope when Irina had found none herself. The Ashen One was not the courteous kind, they had saved her, but had let her figure out what her destiny lied from there, giving no heed to Eygon's sharp words.   
And Eygon, oh Eygon. Eygon was sharp words and sharp laughter, bitterness staining his everything. His hands were rough as he guided, no pulled, her along to her destiny.  
This day, today, he's not bitter, he's not rough, just standing in the alcove above her corner of the firelink shrine. He comes from time to time to see how she fares. He doesn't always talk to her those times; in fact, it's more common that he wouldn't speak to her or anyone else at all. She suspects it will be one of those silent days today.  
She bows her head in prayer, hiding her frown from Eygon. It is not his presence that has her thoughts jumbled and heart uneasy, but she has not figured out what has made her this today. She knows she's not alone, being restless. She has heard the smith's swearing more often than not this day and the thief who from time to time talk to her has not even attempted to do else than sit on his crate, drumming impatient fingers on his leg.  
She lifts her head when she hear the Ashen One's footsteps, her heart's relief easing her troubled mind. The chosen one returns once more. A smile reaches her lips.  
Her attention is grabbed by a second sound, a sound she hasn't heard Eygon ever make in the years they have known each other; he swallows, the heavy kind of swallow a new recruit make when he's called forward for the first time; the kind you do before taking a leap of trust that might break you irreparably; the kind she had made the day she had been appointed a knight that seemed to hate her. He makes that sound and her hands curl into fists, her dark world shook in it's foundations in the way that no one but her will ever know. Eygon are many things, but he is not scared. She knows he has said many things to the chosen one, words in anger, words of bitterness and pettiness; she knows him, like no one else does, and he has never been scared of the Ashen One. Until today.  
She sits in silence and listen. There isn't anything unusual about the Ashen One's steps, only a heaviness, as if they carried something with them. That is nothing unusual for the Ashen One, as they seem to pick up every piece of interesting clothing or weapon for selling. She continues to listen.  
Eygon doesn't move from his spot as the Ashen One walk past, he doesn't even breathe from what Irina can hear. Irina flinches when she hear the sound of metal and something soft hit stone. The Ashen One stops momentarily but soon continues, the metal screech slowly against the stone and the Ashen One pulls the thing upwards and away from Irina on the stairs above. The Ashen One is pulling a body, and Irina softly gasps at the implication. The Ashen One stops far away from her with their burden and as she strains to listen she can hear Ludleth's low breathing pick up. The metal sounds in the shrine once more before it goes quiet and then the Ashen One returns down the stairs. Irina wished for eyes, so she could see what the sight of a chosen one truly is. The firemaiden is congratulating the Ashen One, and this with more emotion Irina has heard the woman ever utter during Irina's short stay.  
“Lord seeker, or should I say lord-slayer?” Ludleth says when greeting the Ashen One and Irina clasps her hands together to thank the gods for this sign of victory, a victory surely soon followed by many others. But in the back of her mind, she wishes for the finality of the metal clanking to stop ringing in her ears, and as she listens to Eygon grinding his teeth, she wishes for herself that Eygon's swallow is to be forgotten.


End file.
